
F^RELIjMINARV xoxes 



THE DISTRIBI^TION OF FOREKIN mm IN WISI'ONSIN 



BY REUBEN G. THWAITES. 

Corresponding Secretary of the State Historical Society of iVisconsin. 



[Extract from Aunual Report, submitted January 2, 1890.] 



FOREIGN GROUPS IN WISCONSIN. 



[Extract from the Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Historical Society of 
Wisconsin, submitted January 2, 1890.] 

The investigation which has been conducted during the 
past eighteen months by the corresponding secretary, in 
connection with the historical department of the State 
University, into the origin and status of the several foreign 
groups in Wisconsin, has made excellent progress. The 
subject of this interesting inquiry is, primarily, organized 
immigration — whether under the authority of the native 
government, or by private enterprise, or at the suggestion 
of the agents of railway companies, or of the State com- 
missioners. Considerable groups of foreign nationality, 
even if not strictly organized, are also being studied. Cir- 
cular letters have been sent out in considerable numbers, 
to the most of which intelligent answers have been re- 
ceived. Two-thirds of the counties in the state have thus 
far been covered by the reports now in hand. Many of 
these local reports are comprehensive and worthy of separ- 
ate publication when the time comes for fully presenting 
the results of the inquiry. The University will probably 
undertake this portion of the work, and Mr. John Samuel 
Roeseler, fellow in history, has been detailed for the task 
of collation. A few facts, culled at random in this fertile 
field, will illustrate what is being done. 

Wisconsin probably contains a greater variety of foreign 
groups than any other American State. The principal na- 
tionalities now colonized here, rank in numbers as follows : 
Germans, Scandinavians, Irish, natives of Great Britain, 



68 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Canadians, Bohemians, Dutch and French. Many of these 
foreign groups occupy entire townships and control within 
them all political, educational and religious affairs. Here 
and there, we find genuine communities where property is 
held in common and from which strangers are carefully 
excluded: such as the St. Nazianz German Catholic com- 
munity, in Manitowoc county, where there are men of all 
essential trades and professions, and where, according to 
our informants, no communication is held with the outer 
world if it can be prevented. In considerable districts, par- 
ticularly among the Germans and Welsh, the English lan- 
guage is reported to be seldom spoken and public as well as 
parochial schools are conducted in the foreign tongue. But 
as a rule, the foreign-born people of Wisconsin appear 
quick to adopt American methods and English speech and 
enter with zest into the privileges and duties of citizenship; 
while no matter how stoutly the elders may endeavor to 
perpetuate the foreign ideas which they have brought with 
them, the younger generation cannot long be held in leash, 
complaint being universal in the replies to our circulars, 
that the teachings of the fathers in these matters appear 
to have but little effect upon youth. The process of assim- 
ilation appears to be, as a whole, reasonably rapid and sat- 
isfactory. New customs, new manners, new blood are 
being introduced by the colonists from across sea, and as 
a rule these are worthy of adoption and absorption. 

It is interesting to note the localities where these foreign 
groups have planted themselves. 

Germans. — The Germans number seventy-five per cent, 
of the population of Taylor county, sixty-five per cent, of 
Dodge and fifty-five per cent, of Buffalo. They are also 
found in especially large groups in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, 
Washington, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Jefferson, Outagamie, 
Eond du Lac, Sauk, Waupaca, Dane, Marathon, Grant, 
Waushara, Green Lake, Langlade and Clark counties. 
There are Germans in every county of the State and num- 
erous isolated German settlements, but in the counties 
named these people are particularly numerous. Sometimes 
the groups are of special interest because the people came 



FOREIGN GROUPS IN WISCONSIN. 59 

for the most part from a particular district in the Father- 
land. For instance, Lomira, in Dodge county, was settled 
almost entirely by Prussians from Brandenburg, who be- 
longed to the Evangelical Association. The neighboring 
towns of Herman and Theresa, also in Dodge county, were 
settled principally by natives of Pommerania. In Calumet 
county, there are Oldenburg, Luxemburg and New Hol- 
stein settlements. St. Kilian, in Washington county, is 
settled by people from northern Bohemia, just over the 
German border. The town of Belgium, Ozaukee county, 
is populated almost exclusively by Luxemburgers, while 
Oldenburgers occupy the German settlement at Cedarburg. 
Three-fourths of the population of Farmington, Washington 
county, are from Saxony. In the same county, Jackson is 
chiefly settled by Pommeranians, while one-half of the 
population of Kewaskum are from the same German pro- 
vince. In Dane county there are several interesting groups 
of German Catholics. Roxbury is nine-tenths German, the 
people coming mostly from Rheinish Prussia and Bavaria. 
Germans predominate in Cross Plains, the rest of the popu- 
lation being Irish. The German families of Middleton 
came from Koln, Rheinish Prussia, and so did those of 
Berry, a town almost solidly German. 

Scandinavians. — The Scandinavians (Norwegians, 
Swedes, Danes and Icelanders) of Wisconsin are divided 
into national groups. The Norwegians are strongest in 
Dane county, where there are probably not less than 14,000 
who were either born in Norway or whose parents were. 
Other counties having large numbers, are Pierce, St. Croix, 
Eau Claire, Waushara, Waupaca, Washburn, Winnebago, 
Portage, Buffalo, Trempealeau, Barron, Door, Bayfield, 
Florence, Lincoln, Rock, Racine, Milwaukee, Grant and 
Oneida. The following are important Norwegian groups: 

Portage county — New Hope and Amherst. 

Pierce county — Gilman, Martel, Ellsworth and Hartland. 

"Waupaca county — Seven townships in the western part. 

Waushara county — Mt. Morris. 

Winnebago county — Winchester and one-half of Clayton. 

Lafayette county — Christiana. 

Vernon county — Coon. 



60 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Swedes predominate in Trenton, Isabel and Maiden Rock, 
in Pierce county; and are strong in portions of Bayfield, 
Douglas, Price, Taylor, Door, Jackson and Portage coun- 
ties. Danes are found in considerable groups in Adams, 
Milwaukee, Racine and Waushara counties. Icelanders 
practically monopolize Washington island (Door county), 
in the waters of Green Bay. 

Bohemians. — The Bohemians are settled for the most 
part in the counties of Kewaunee (where they form three- 
sevenths of the entire population), Marathon, Adams, Craw- 
ford, Grant (towns of Muscoda and Castle Rock), Columbia 
(Lodi), Trempealeau, Langlade and Washington (part of 
Wayne). 

Belgians. — We find Belgians closely massed in the towns 
of Gardiner, Union and Brussels, in Door county; Red 
River and a large part of Lincoln, in Kewaunee county, 
and in Brown county. 

Polanders. — The Polanders are wide spread. In the 
cities of Milwaukee and Manitowoc, there are large masses 
of them. In the city and neighborhood of Beaver Dam, 
Dodge county, there are 900 Poles, mostly from Posen, Ger- 
many. In Berlin and its neighborhood, are 1,200 from Dan- 
zig, and immigration from thence is still in active progress. 
There are two Polish churches in Berlin, and one Polish 
school in which that language is taught. Other solid Pol- 
ish groups are found in the townships of Berlm, Seneca and 
Princeton. Warren township, in Waushara county, has a 
considerable colony of Poles, and others can be found in 
Trempealeau, Door, Kewaunee, Portage, Marathon, Lang- 
lade and Buffalo counties. 

Welsh. — The Welsh are planted upon our soil in large 
groups. In Waushara county, we find the town of Spring- 
water, one-half of the town of Rose and one-half of Aurora 
occupied by natives of Wales and their immediate descend- 
ants. Spring Green, in Sauk county, has a large colony of 
them. The whole of Nekimi and the greater part of Utica, 
in Winnebago county, are settled by this people. So are 
Caledonia and other townships in Columbia county, and the 



FOREIGN GROUPS IN WISCONSIN. 61 

town of Calamus in Dodge. Monroe county has many solid 
Welsh neighborhoods, and other compact groups are found 
in the third and sixth wards of Racine. 

Italians. — Italian groups are noted in Vernon, Wash- 
burn and Florence counties. In Vernon, they hold one- 
half of Genoa township. 

Russians. — Russians, both Greek-church adherents and 
Jews, are chiefly found in the city of Milwaukee. Of the 
Greek-church Russians, there are two thousand in number, 
living on one street in a densely settled neighborhood and 
said to be mainly engaged in peddling small wares. The Rus- 
sian Jews are scattered throughout the city; they observe 
their old social customs with religious tenacity, but are 
allowing their children to become Americanized. 

Dutch — The Dutch have particularly strong settlements 
In the northeastern portion of the State, in the city of Mil- 
waukee and in La Crosse county. The first colony settled 
in Hollandtown, Sheboygan county, where natives of Hol- 
land still own one-fourth of the township. They own one- 
half of Barton, in Washington county. Alto, Fond du Lac 
county, is essentially a Dutch town. A considerable strong- 
hold is the town of Kaukauna, Outagamie county, and the 
Dutch own much of Depere and Belleville, Brown county. 
The city of Milwaukee had as early as 1849, a Dutch popu- 
lation of more than 800, which has since greatly increased; 
they are strongest in the northwest portion of the city, for- 
merly known as " Kilbourntown. '' There is a large settle- 
ment of Frisians in Holland township. La Crosse county, 
their village being known as New Amsterdam. 

Swiss. — There are between 5,000 and 6,000 Swiss massed 
in exceptionally prosperous colonies in New Glarus, 
Washington, Exeter, Mt. Pleasant, York and neighboring 
townships in Green county. Others may be found in the 
counties of Buffalo, Pierce (Union), Winnebago (Black 
Wolf) and Fond du Lac (Ashford). 

Irish. — Irish groups are found in Bear Creek, Winfield 
and Dellona, in Sauk county; Osceola, Eden and Byron, in 
Fond du Lac county; Benton, Darlington, Gratiot, Kendall, 



6;i WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

Seymour, Shullsburg and Willow Spring, in Lafayette 
county; Lebanon, in Waupaca county; Erin, in Washing- 
ton county; El Paso, in Pierce county; and Emmet, Shields 
and Portland, in Dodge county. 

English. — Large English settlements — several of them 
the result of the early immigration of Cornish miners into 
the lead regions of southwestern Wisconsin — can be found 
in Iowa, Grant, Lafayette, Columbia, Juneau and Dane 
county. 

Scotch. — The Scotch, we find in considerable numbers in 
Columbia, Buffalo, Green Lake, Kenosha, Marathon and 
Trempealeau counties. 

FiNLANDERS. — Finlaudors DT'e quite strongly grouped in 
Douglas county. 

AusTRiANS. — Austrians are numerous in Kewaunee 
county. 

French. — The principal French-Canadian settlements are 
in Bayfield, Crawford, Lincoln, St. Croix and Taylor counties 
— not counting the French Creoles at Green Bay, Kau- 
kauna and Prairie du Chien. 

The matter of geographical distribution of nationalities, 
and the many changes therein, is an interesting one, and the 
map illustrating this, which is now being prepared, will be of 
great practical value to the student of colonization. Wau- 
paca, for example, is one of the counties remarkable for its 
distribution. In the eastern half, the Germans now pre- 
dominate in all of the townships except Lebanon and 
Matteson. In Lebanon the Irish are still strongest, al- 
though they are being slowly displaced by the Germans, 
who are indeed gaining all along the line; it is worthy of 
note that the Germans have frequently displaced large 
bodies of Irish settlers in the southeastern portions of the 
State. Matteson township is held by a mixture of Germans, 
Norwegians, Irish and America.ns. The western townships 
of Waupaca county, with the exception of the three south- 
western — Farmington, Dayton and Lind, where Americans 
predominate — are almost exclusively Scandinavian; but 
even in the American towns, there is a large contingent 
of Danes, and Americans are losing ground. 



FOREIGN GROUPS IN WISCONSIN. 63 

Enough has been given to exhibit the scope of the inquiry 
and the progress made. We are slowly building up in 
America a composite nationality that is neither English nor 
continental, but partakes of all — it is to be hoped, the best 
of all. This investigation into the details of the forces at 
work in a representative State, and the manner of their 
working is, we believe, of the utmost importance and sig- 
nificance, and when the results are finally presented to the 
public they are certain to command the general attention 
of students in history and economic science. 



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